Related Field
This document relates to a touch sensor integrated type display device.
Discussion of the Related Art
User interfaces (UI) enable humans (users) to interact with various types of electric or electronic devices so that they can easily control the devices as they want. Typical examples of the user interfaces include keypads, keyboards, mice, on-screen displays (OSD), and remote controllers with an infrared communication capability or radio frequency (RF) communication capability. Recently, user interfaces have been evolving into touch UI, voice recognition UI, 3D UI, etc. Capacitive touchscreens can be used in a variety of applications since they have higher durability and better contrast than conventional resistive touchscreens and allow multi-touch sensing and proximity-touch sensing.
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for in-cell type (hereinafter, in-cell) touch screen integrated-type display devices incorporating elements constituting a touchscreen to make portable terminals such as smartphones, tablet PCs, etc. slimmer. In the in-cell touchscreen integrated type display devices, common electrodes for display are segmented into those for a plurality of touch driving periods and those for a plurality of touch sensing periods so that mutual capacitance occurs between electrodes for the touch driving periods and electrodes for the touch sensing periods. Therefore, the in-cell touchscreen integrated type display devices can detect a touch by measuring a change in mutual capacitance made by the touch.
In the touch sensing periods, the electric potential of electrodes or signal lines other than sensor electrodes must not be changed. Accordingly, during the touch sensing periods, data lines remain at a specific voltage value or their current path to a channel is blocked. A data driver keeps operating when the current path between the channel and the data lines is blocked, as well as when a specific voltage is applied to the data lines. That is, electric power is constantly consumed while the data driver is not actually operating, which results in unnecessary waste of electricity.